Making Chinchilla Toys - Saving Pet Pennies

Chinchilla toys are expensive. There's a pretty good reason they are; the best ones are handmade, and shipping usually costs as much as the actual toy! Thankfully, there are some merchants like TJ's Chinchilla Supplies who not only sell toys, but are a great source for the components to make your own. It's a little cheaper this way, and it lets me recycle parts of old toys and save a bit that way.

Sources for the other elements I used are:

• Home Depot carries the wires, pliers, and clamps that you need to make your own toys from scratch. I have yet to BUY wire as I've been just re-using wire from toys I'd previously purchased
• Tired older toys that only have a few intact pieces left
• Kaytee sells little bits of things with holes in them you can add; I usually order these off of Amazon
• You can get "refillable" bird toys, which are a strong metal bar with a screw on bottom. These are meant to be restrung when used up. I love the one I have.
• REMEMBER: You can't just buy ANY wooden beads; you need something that is pet-safe (another reason for TJ's shopping)

Palm leaves, bamboo, rattan, wood, and "lava rocks" are hugely popular with my pets. In fact, except for the balsa/fake lava pieces, the guinea pigs love all of those things as well, so this is a bit of a twofer. I'm sure if I wanted I could source some of the items, like the finger traps from a less expensive supplier, but there's something to be said for one-stop shopping. So, I got a bunch of different items from TJ's awhile ago, and last night remade some toys for the boys.

Needle nose pliers, larger-gauge wire, pieces and leftovers. The cardboard rings are a huge hit.

I made a couple of twists, then tucked in 1/4" of the end-wire back into the turquoise bead. Even once the finger-traps are destroyed the end of the wire is still covered by the bead.

The easiest way I've found to string some of these items on wire is working from the top down instead of the bottom up. This particular large toy I did from the bottom up. I especially made this set of toys using Kaytee apple sticks (they are drilled down the middle), as the chinchillas adore them and it would get them interested.

I ordered the carabiner clips off of Amazon. The threads make these my favorite and most secure toy anchors.

One thing I have the benefit of is years of making jewelry and otherwise working with heavier gauge wire for sculpture. It's important to make sure that you tuck ALL pointy wire ends (you should have two) away from the chinchillas! I tuck the ends inside the larger wooden beads. This takes plier skills, so practice might be needed! 

No question I have a successful toy when I've got two of the boys wrestling over it! Rory goes from the top, Rob from the bottom! In fact, you can see another rebuilt toy hanging on the shelf Rory is perched on. I think they like competition!